Into the Dark
by Carmesi
Summary: The events of The Iron Daughter when Ash is being controlled by Virus. Ash's POV.
1. Prologue

**Into the Dark**

By Carmesí

_**Prologue**_

Everything was dark, and cold. Everything was painful.

He was lying on his stomach in a table, shirtless. His limbs were secured with metallic manacles, burning his flesh and weakening him. He couldn't see them, but he sensed more faeries in the room, peering down on him.

A blinding white light bathed his body.

"Do you believe he will survive the bug?" asked an iron sidhe with surgical scrubs.

"I don't think so" answered Virus, former Machina lieutenant "but I think he is strong enough to last more than the others. He'll be really useful." She said the last phrase with a cruel smirk on her lips.

Ash, prince of the Winter court kept silent. He didn't beg or tried to reason with their captors. It was not only his pride that prevented him to say anything when they connected countless little wires to his back; he just knew it will be fruitless. Every single one of the wires was like a red coal digging on his skin. He clenched his jaw, not giving up to the pain.

"Oh you think you are so brave, darling, is that it?" Virus asked, still he didn't make a sound and only offered a murderer glance.

"We are ready to implant the bug" announced the other faerie, still on a business-like voice.

"Allow me to do the honors" said Virus on her high-pitched voice. She had a peculiar syringe on her hands. The lieutenant moved closer to the table and caressed Ash's cheek, making him shift away her touch with disgust.

"Don't worry, Ash, it'll be over sooner that you think."

She suddenly was lost of sight. He bit a lip on anticipation, sensing movement close. Something cold on the back on his head and he froze, then he felt a unbearable sharp pain and something inside his head not only burning, excavating but making all the nerves of his body tremble with pain.

For the first time, Ash allowed himself a pained grunt and he was dead to the world.


	2. Chapter 1 Nothing Left

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews ^_^, I planned this as a 3-5 chapters fic. Sorry for some grammatical mistakes, English is not my first language. The Iron Knight is coming in a few days! I'm dying of excitement.**

**Hope you like this chapter.**

Chapter 1 - Nothing Left

When you have lived for a long, long, time, you stop counting years or seasons, but you start keeping track of events that indicate an after and before in the course of your existence. I have very few of them. My life is separated in fragments. My childhood and early youth is a blurry mass of memories tainted by the cruelty of the Unseele Court.

The end of that chapter of my life, the first unexpected milestone, was the moment I found myself capable of friendship, trustiness. Running away from my own home, spending as much time as possible on the wyldwood, my unusual association with Robin Goodfellow started. He was a convenient companion for hunting, enough reckless to associate with a prince of the Unseele. As obnoxious as Puck was, and as hermetic I was, he became my first real friend.

A long time after that, the surprises continued … she came, Ariella. The unthinkable happened: I found love, or love found me, depending on how you see it.

There we were, the three of us: Robin Goodfellow, Ariella and myself. Uncaring of both Summer and Winter courts rules and prejudices, taking on the world. They changed me, nothing I have experienced before could compete with the content of their company.

Finding them was my first and second life-changing moment. The third one was losing them forever.

As the light in Ariella's eye faded away, disappearing forever of this world something died inside me too. The following oath, said in a moment of blind rage, was the one that bound me to kill my once closest friend. I was alone again.

Drowning in grief, loss and anger I cared for nothing. I hunted, fought, killed.

I should have known better. There is a reason the Unseele consider feelings a weakness. I froze everything inside me.

So many years passed since that fateful day, I thought my next milestone would be Robin Goodfellow's or my own death. And more, more, endless emptiness until then.

Of course, I was proven wrong when Meghan Chase came into my life.

I found myself drawn to hear like a moth to a flame. At first, following Ariella's shadow on her, later, moved by her stubbornness, loyalty and noble feelings.

And when she, without restrains, offered her heart to me, young, innocent, fragile and beautiful, I did the expected of an Unseele Prince. I cruelly broke it to little pieces. It doesn't matter I did it trying to protect her from my kin and Queen Mab. That was the only possible outcome. It matter so much less I loved her dearly, too.

_She __is __summer, __I__'__m __Winter. __She __is __human, __I__'__m __a __soulless __faery_. That's what I told myself over and over as I departed from her side. She to her world, me in search of the Scepter of the Seasons. I knew that was our definitely farewell.

Now, I'm here in the human world, my will subdued to Virus, lieutenant of the Iron King. Her iron bug inside my head, a painful, constant remainder. Even if the agony is unbearable, I cannot scream, I can only obey. I know I don't have much time left. My body will not be able to hold more than a few days.

This is it. I'm a traitor to my kind. I couldn't carry my mission to retrieve the Scepter of the Seasons. I will die soon, alone and in the worst imaginable pain, serving my more heated enemy.

And in the dark, I stand immobile besides a metal and crystal window of the Iron Fey quarter; I stare at the night sky. You can only see very few stars in this world, but it doesn't matter. My mind wanders to her, Meghan Chase, my only comforting thought.

She is safe. Out of my reach, but happy, with her family… and Robin Goodfellow. She will forget, as the human she is, her time on the Nevernever. I'd become a long forget image from a dream.

The few shining moments I shared with Meghan repeat on my head, as an escape from the pain. I hope they accompany me until the end reaches me.

The Elysium, Meghan in my arms as we spun around under the stars, lost in each other eyes. Her embrace, her lips on mine, her clear blue eyes, her strength and determination, even I always saw the vulnerability beneath. Her beautiful, beautiful tears, always shed for other more than herself. And the warm smile I will never see again.

* * *

><p>Something is happening. I can see Thornguards running alarmed, and more iron fey gathering. Suddenly I feel the bug in my head, restless, moving, ordering me to come to Virus call.<p>

I move on the identically white halls, open a door and enter a big room with a large table and several dozens of chairs. There are the Thornguards, Virus and in the other side of the table, a group of intruders.

I thought I couldn't fall any lower, that my despair had reached all imaginable limits, but a cold hand squeeze my heart and I feel like falling for a abysm.

The intruder group consisted of an iron fey – Ironhorse, Robin Goodfellow and Meghan Chase.

"_Ash,__"_ Virus murmured as I approached the table _"__say __hello __to __our __guests__"__._

**R&R!**


End file.
